This invention relates to a force yieldable knife means meat tenderizing apparatus in which force yieldable means are provided comprising friction members engaging each set of knife means for retaining the knife means independently in meat penetrating position.
The invention also relates to a meat tenderizing apparatus including a retainer movable with the knives when they are projected into the meat but held by an improved latch structure against the meat while the knives are withdrawn substantially to prevent the meat being lifted excessively by the retracting knives.
The invention also relates to an apparatus for tenderizing meat in which the meat is conveyed through a tenderizing zone by a conveyor and in which separate meat retainers are provided spanning the conveyor at the zone so that each retainer is independently operable to adjust for meat of varying thicknesses or for parallel lines of meat on the conveyor traveling through the tenderizing zone.
The knife structure used in the apparatus of this invention includes a piston of uniform cross sectional area on which either a single elongated knife is attached as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,535,734 or preferably a plurality of knives for reasons described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,842,464 which is assigned to the same assignee as the present application. In each the piston and its knife or knives have essentially parallel axes.
Many prior patents disclose locking means for holding a meat retainer on the meat while the knives are withdrawn and with the locking means comprising a tiltable ring or similar structure that binds against a guide post during withdrawal of the meat but that is engaged by the knife structure on its retraction movement for leveling the structure and thus moving it to unlocked position and also for retracting the retainer with the retraction movement of the knives. One such patent is U.S. Pat. No. 3,521,321.